Defensive Design

Defensive Design’s goal is to moderate behaviour and limit the ways an object can be misused.

A park bench with a handrail in the middle is easily overlooked but is designed to stop people lying down and sleeping. To stop homeless people from sleeping in public spaces.

A leaning bar, found in train stations and bus stops are designed to give people temporary relief from standing. It doesn’t give you adequate support to have a rest. It prevents lingering and therefore moves people through the spaces faster.

These spikes seem like elegant modernistic embellishments on an otherwise boring concrete bench, but for a skateboarder it is a hazard and therefore prevents them from using it as a grinding bar.

The concept of Defensive design also goes by the name of hostile design. This is because the designers have gone out of their way to physically interrupt the way people use public spaces. Using the park bench as an example: the arm rest in the middle of the bench tells homeless people that they are not allowed to use this particular seat as a place to sleep.

In all cases the designer doesn’t intend to cause harm to anyone but in some cases the obstacles they have created to discourage public use can harm. For the example below it is obvious that this platform is not to be sat on, but for a blind person they may not realise that this is a seat not to be sat on.

Despite the concepts backlash, could this approach be applied to shared objects? How can we stop people from driving bikes drunk or vandalising or stealing them?

I want to take this concept and apply it to shared objects to discourage their misuse

After more thought it is quite ironic that I think this is a good idea because Apple have done this exact thing with their phones. Applying defensive design principles to their products they prevent outside parties from tampering with their electronics.
The designers designing the defensive aspect of products should consider the greater good as opposed to their companies or councils quick fix solutions. In some circumstances products shouldn’t be messed with but a phone should have a quick fix replacement battery. Greedy companies want you to buy more products instead of fix your old ones. Likewise, councils implementing hostile urban design should consider the wellbeing of their population and give solutions for the people looking for a place to sit, skate or sleep.